BMG 4/5 Songs about sex and about Scandinavian design. Songs about The Macbeths and about Edith Piaf. Yep, the Mael brothers are back, and as delightfully oddball as ever. If…
OMD – The Punishment of Luxury album review
White Noise 4/5 Halfway through OMD’s 13th album, there’s a brief piece – part song, part collage – entitled Precision & Decay, a requiem for Detroit’s industrial decline. A ghostly…
LCD Soundsystem – American Dream album review
DFA Records/Columbia 5/5 When LCD Soundsystem announced they were disbanding in 2011, a considerable song and dance was made about the news: a four-hour show at New York’s 20,000-capacity Madison…
Liam Gallagher – As You Were album review
Warner Bros Records 4/5 The unfairly maligned Beady Eye may not have set the world alight but the younger Gallagher brother’s solo debut is everything you could reasonably hope for.…
Pet Shop Boys – Nightlife, Release and Fundamental review
Tennant and Lowe kick-start mammoth project featuring expanded reissues of some of their best work… a treasure trove of goodies for PSB fans Parlophone 4/5 These three Pet Shop Boys…
Alison Moyet – Other album review
Picking up where her last record left off, Alison Moyet pairs up with producer Guy Sigsworth for her ninth album, an intensely thrilling tour de force Cooking Vinyl 5/5 “Suddenly…
London Grammar – Truth is a Beautiful Thing album review
London Grammar – Truth is a Beautiful Thing Album Review Metal & Dust / Ministry of Sound 4/5 With their debut EP described in The Guardian by Classic Pop’s own…
Blondie – Pollinator album review
Blondie are back with their 11th album Pollinator, and it’s rammed with guest singers and acclaimed songwriters. Are we still touched by their presence, dear? BMG 3/5 The problem with…
Paul Weller – A Kind Revolution album review
PARLOPHONE 3/5 “My mind is a running stream,” Paul Weller sings at the beginning of Nova, “stretching down by the side of a willow tree”. It’s a lyric that would…
Gorillaz – Humanz album review
More fun than a barrelful of monkeys, Gorillaz’ fifth long-player requires perseverance, but reveals itself over time as equal parts exciting and experimental Parlophone 4/5 The evolution of Gorillaz has…